Are you ready for the colocation data center revolution?

Colocation data centers are heading towards an inflection point. Intense competition, increased regulatory pressure and the exponential demand for highly responsive services mean that traditional capacity planning and asset management approaches are now firmly outdated. 

For colocation operators to remain competitive, providers need to reimagine their operational strategy, tackling the challenges that impede growth and unlocking the potential of value-added services - all while carefully balancing the bottom line.

What is the answer to this complex conundrum? Data center infrastructure management (DCIM). 

Overcoming obstacles and optimizing operations with DCIM

Let’s take sustainability, undoubtedly, one of the most significant challenges operators will face over the next two years. As regulations become more stringent with ultimate transparency required, for example, the new ISO standard ISO/IEC 30134, providers must implement granular monitoring and reporting capabilities for audit purposes. But creating a comprehensive, real-time inventory of energy efficiency is only possible with the right tools. 

Done well, DCIM by nature is a natural solution to sustainability reporting and managing power consumption, enabling operators to collect and analyze energy-related metrics from previously disparate, siloed sources. The result is a system where operators can effortlessly monitor energy efficiency, and generate compliance and power usage reports in a few simple clicks. 

Of course, economic sustainability is also an ongoing concern for providers. Market saturation is forcing operators to lower the costs of their services while enhancing their offerings. In this paradigm, operational optimization is pivotal to balancing the books - and DCIM is the way to achieve it. With simple integrations such as modern centralized alarm and incident management systems, maintenance scheduling and warehouse functionalities, the minutiae operational challenges and unnecessary dramas will be a thing of the past.

While spreadsheets and diagrams are error-prone and inherently reactive, DCIM empowers operators to monitor and manage IT and physical assets easily. These solutions provide a granular yet universal view of the data center, making it easier than ever to optimize capacity and, ultimately, maintain cost-effectiveness. 

Not only that, the unparalleled visibility of DCIM can revolutionize how operators approach failure prevention and availability. While significant outages are infrequent, more minor, more punctual failures continue to plague data centers on a day-to-day basis, often with a knock-on impact on customer satisfaction. 

Best-in-class DCIM solutions harness the power of machine learning and advanced analytics to identify availability risks well before they become a reality, reducing the likelihood of outages and downtime. 

Thanks to these capabilities, DCIM inherently improves the customer experience, offering a more reliable, transparent and efficient service. With DCIM, for example, operators can equip their customers with much-needed oversight into the status of consumption, their hosted equipment and more and new services that operators are now offering. 

DCIM can also streamline administrative and commercial tasks. By integrating DCIM into customer relationship management platforms, operators can automate cumbersome tasks such as contracts, billing and compliance with SLAs. 

From challenge to evolution

Colocation data centers are redefining themselves, harnessing the power of advanced DCIM systems to revolutionize day-to-day operations and turn present challenges into growth opportunities. 

At RiT Tech, we are proud to support colocation operators and owners worldwide as they embark on this evolution. Our DCIM solution, XpedITe, is the only solution that connects all data center infrastructure and networking equipment in one platform.

Find out more about our award-winning platform.